The Daily Telegraph

Russian soldiers rebel against ‘certain death’

Troops mutinous over ‘human wave’ tactic of sending them into line of fire to overwhelm enemy

- By Nataliya Vasilyeva RUSSIA CORRESPOND­ENT in Istanbul

RUSSIANS on the front lines are mutinying, fighting among themselves and getting lost in the chaos of a faltering offensive, videos and messages from inside Vladimir Putin’s army show.

Recently mobilised soldiers are refusing orders to face “certain death” by joining “human wave” attacks that they say are destroying entire units at a time.

Some are appealing directly to Mr Putin in desperate videos, while others are standing up to Kremlin officials sent to quell the rebellion.

Reports are emerging of fighters being locked in basements for declining to become targets.

Meanwhile, the Russian army has created a new unit to round up all the “lost” soldiers deserting, fleeing or struggling to find their teams.

Soldiers from at least 16 different regions have recorded video messages since early February to blame commanders for trying to use them in “human wave” attacks, according to the Russian media outlet Verstka.

The tactic of sending “human waves” of poorly trained and poorly armed fighters into the line of fire to overwhelm the opposition has become increasing­ly common, according to military observers.

Ukrainian forces are reporting staggering Russian losses – between 600 to 1,000 men a day. Russia’s long-awaited offensive is largely considered to have stalled amid a gruelling battle to take the small city of Bakhmut.

One of the most striking recent calls for help from soldiers came from a group of men who were called up from eastern Siberia’s Irkutsk region. The man said he and his comrades were sent to the occupied Donetsk region, ostensibly to be a patrol force only to find out they were to join a now notorious human wave attack outside Avdiivka.

“We’re just sent in for slaughter. The commanders are telling us in the face we’re disposable soldiers and our only chance to go back home is to get injured in fighting,” the soldier said.

“The commanders don’t care about our lives. We’re asking for help. We have no one else to turn to.”

Ruslan Leviev, head of the investigat­ive Conflict Intelligen­ce Team that has been tracing Russian troops since 2014, said: “We don’t know how much of this discontent is left unpublicis­ed but those videos most likely speak to the use of ‘human wave attacks’ widely reported by the Ukrainian army.”

Soldiers often hide their faces behind balaclavas and rarely speak to reporters, fearing that publicity would backfire against them or their families.

In another widely shared video, filmed in darkness, a Russian says: “Vladimir Vladimirov­ich [Putin], this is a plea from men mobilised from the Irkutsk region. We’re asking you to look into the illegal and criminal orders of our commanders and take action,” the man says, asking Mr Putin to stop sending former civilians like him to their deaths.”

He says the unit of his predecesso­rs who made a similar appeal was “almost completely wiped out”. After four pleas from the 1,439th regiment, the men’s female relatives recorded a desperate video last week asking Putin, “our only hope”, to “save our men”.

“The commanders have abandoned them and told them not to leave their positions. Our men have been without food or water for a few days but surviving under constant shelling,” the women said.

In response, Russia’s defence ministry released a video of a masked soldier who said he was from Irkutsk and that he was willing to serve.

People of Baikal, an Irkutsk media outlet in exile, was able to trace the men’s relatives after they posted desperate pleas on local social media groups that were subsequent­ly deleted.

The wife of one of the men who recorded the appeal called him a “patriot who respected Putin and thought he was doing everything right in Ukraine”.

The woman’s husband, who was called up in September and ended up in Donetsk in November, described to her the grim reality in eastern Ukraine. “(The commander) was sending them for slaughter: People were shot and killed like at a shooting range. The guys were alone in a minefield, without any air support or any reinforcem­ents,” the wife said.

Reports about an utter disarray in the Russian ranks have also come from prokremlin sources.

Rybar, one of Russia’s most popular pro-war Telegram channels, this week admitted that the country’s army faces the problem of soldiers who “got lost”.

Russian convicts who were recruited to fight have also begun to rebel.

Media outlet Ostorozhno Novosti this week published a video allegedly showing convicts thrown in a basement outside Donetsk as punishment for refusing to follow orders.

The men said only 11 people from their unit of 71 people survived.

In arguably the most desperate appeal to date, mobilised men from 1,004th regiment were seen confrontin­g a commander who was dispatched from their native Kaliningra­d to respond to a brewing mutiny.

The men shouted at the commander that they have been used as “meat” and they refuse to go into attack.

“Why should I fight there? What for? Who for? They’re sending us to a sure death,” one man yelled. “Go jail us! How much is it? 5, 7, 10? I don’t give a damn. At least I’ll get to live.”

The soldiers’ appeals also shed light on apparent friction between Russian troops and local militants in Donetsk who have been fighting against Ukrainian government troops since 2014.

The Kaliningra­d recruits like the men from Irkutsk claimed that separatist commanders from Donetsk have been refusing to “waste” ammunition artillery to support them as one man said they were not given proper equipment or weapons.

“We get out there [to the front line] while [the Donetsk men] just sit around shamelessl­y, with all the equipment, night vision and stuff,” he said.

So far, however desperate the pleas are, Russia has yet to see a genuine wave of defection that would have an impact on its defence capabiliti­es.

Mr Leviev of the Conflict Intelligen­ce Team said: “The frequency and volume of those complaints are still not enough to get the Russian commanders to give up the tactic of human wave attacks.”

‘Why should I fight there? They’re sending us to a sure death. Go jail us. At least I’ll get to live’

 ?? ?? Soldiers have pleaded with Putin, the Russian president, to look into ‘the illegal and criminal orders of our commanders and take action’
Soldiers have pleaded with Putin, the Russian president, to look into ‘the illegal and criminal orders of our commanders and take action’

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